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The Typing of the Dead has been described variously as a remake or mod of the original House of the Dead 2. Like the original, Typing of the Dead is styled as a first-person rail shooter game, but substitutes shooting Zombies and other enemies with typing out words or phrases to kill them. When enemies appear, they are accompanied by a Box showing a word, sentence or phrase which must be typed to neutralize the enemy. The length, and complexity, of the phrases increase during the game's progression. Other features retained include the challenges of saving survivors, which will alter the path the player character will take to his Final Destination, and the secrets/bonus items hidden throughout the game.

The Typing of the Dead is a fun and addictive typing "game" from SEGA, essentially taking House of the Dead 2 and replacing the player's gun with a keyboard. This review of the Dreamcast version (which is identical to this PC download in every aspect except the PC replaces a couple of game modes with IPX multiplayer) at GameCritics.com says it all:

"Aperfect example of such creative, atypical game design is Typing Of The Dead - published by Sega and designed by in-house team Smilebit. Typing Of The Dead is a bizarre little game, the likes of which has never been attempted before to my knowledge. [The game] takes the entire content and framework of the arcade-style shooter House Of The Dead 2, but replaces the light-gun with a keyboard as the main method of interaction. Players still progress through the game in a first-person perspective while countless hordes of zombies, monsters and various other enemies attack, but the twist here is that each creature has letters, words or phrases floating in front of them. Players eliminate the unsavory elements by typing the appropriate combination of characters in a speedy and (hopefully) error-free manner. To add some spice, each stage contains one or two short challenges with special requirements in addition to the general task of zombie depopulation. The game also includes a full-fledged tutorial which instructs the virtues of touch typing, as well as a choice between Arcade, Original, [or multiplayer] modes for gameplay enjoyment once a sufficient level of secretarial skill has been mastered.

All levels contain specific challenge areas, where the player is required to kill a certain number of zombies in limited time, and are ended with a boss battle using some sort of alteration of usual gameplay (e.g. a long phrase, typing the correct answer to a question etc.) The console ports have two modes, "Original" and "Arcade," for the main storyline, as well as "Tutorial," "Drill," and "Boss" modes for additional typing training. Other changes are mostly superficial, including replacing the weapons wielded by zombies with harmless items and equipping the AMS agents with keyboards attached to backpack Dreamcasts with oversized batteries (even on the PC version), and one of the bosses, The Tower, has three heads instead of five heads.